Zion Nuclear Power Station - Zion, IL
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Go Boilers!
N 42° 26.982 W 087° 48.221
16T E 433911 N 4700020
Located almost exactly half-way between Chicago and Milwaukee on a beautiful beach.
Waymark Code: WM8WW6
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 05/23/2010
Views: 7
The plant is visible from numerous spots throughout the park. This vantage point is from the main entrance.
The plant had not been in operation since February, 1997, after a control-room operator accidentally shut down Reactor 1 and then tried to restart it without following procedures. Reactor 2 was already shut down for refueling at the time of the incident. ComEd concluded that the plant could not produce competitively priced power because it would have cost $435 million to order steam generators which would not pay for themselves before the plant's operating license expired in 2013. This analysis was predicated on no license extension which at the time was the norm, however since then multiple plants have replaced steam generators and extended the license by 20 years.
All nuclear fuel was removed permanently from the reactor vessel and placed in the plant's on-site spent fuel pool by March 9, 1998. Plans are to keep the facility in long-term safe storage (SAFSTOR) until unit 2's operating license expires on November 14, 2013. Decontamination and dismantlement are to begin after this date. The estimated date for closure is December 31, 2026.
--from Wikipedia
Operational: No
Visitor Center: No
Year Built: 12/01/1973
Year Retired: 02/13/1998
Web Address: [Web Link]
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